Chapter Two:
Princess:
"You know Serena, I thought you were joking when you said that this… 'Bronze' was a teen club," little Rini was saying as she started out over the dance floor, "but this is ridiculous!"
"I know exactly what you mean Rini," Darien and Marise said at the exact same time, staring at the same thing the pink-haired pre-teen was commenting about.
"Oh come on guys," Serena admonished them, moving to the music blaring out of the speakers. "It's not that bad! So American's dance a little differently than we do. And maybe a little more…" she paused as she caught sight of the couple they were all staring at. The woman was moving against her partner as though she were in the throes of passion, while the guy just moved around her, groping at every chance he got. "…uh, expressively. But I'm sure that their just the exception!"
Serena could have swallowed her words as the music changed. Where it had been loud and booming, it was not loud and booming, and seductively slowed to a tempting beat. Every other couple on the dance floor then began to emulate the couple that had caused the disturbance among the visitors, while said couple actually left the dance floor and went to the bar to get something to drink.
"You know, I'm thinking that…maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Let's just go back to the hotel and see what they have on TV." Darien suggested. It was quickly voted on and unanimously decided to leave and go back to the hotel.
They left within ten minutes of stepping into the club, so the bouncer was gracious enough to give them back their entrance fee money. They began walking down the street they had taken to get here when suddenly Serena stopped.
"Did you hear that?" she asked them.
Slayer:
Buffy was having more trouble than she'd ever admit chasing the vampires she had come across. There were only three of them in the beginning, and just the usual jump out punch and stake had taken care of one of them. It was the last two that must have been marathon runners when they were mortal. As they had ducked into a long alley, Buffy had taken a gamble and stopped at the mouth and threw her stake and the gambit paid off with the second one dusting. Unfortunately, knowing how vampires could obsess, Buffy now had a very long sprint ahead of her to catch up with the last. That was when she noticed where she was.
Less than a block from the Bronze.
For some strange reason, Buffy had a sudden uneasiness in her gut. This weren't more vampires, it was more like a sense of foreboding. And she feared that it had to do with her dreams of the past few nights.
Taking a shortcut, Buffy raced around the buildings until she was at the alley leading to the main entrance to the Bronze. When she got to it, she saw the vamp she had been chasing stalking a group of young people a little younger than her. She ran silently forward until she could make them all out. When she saw the blond with waist length pigtails, her blood and heart froze. Somehow, beyond knowledge or description, she knew this girl. And she was about to get attacked.
'Not on my watch,' Buffy thought forcefully as she ran forward to intercept the vampire.
Thunder, Warrior, Lover:
"But I don't understand why they have to come today!" Anya whined to her fiancée Alexander "Xander" Harris.
Xander sighed, exasperated and nearly exhausted from having to explain to his love why he was picking up his cousin and their friends at the Sunnydale Airport. "An, I've explained this already. Lita wanted to come to America and two of her friends also needed to come because of something that they needed to see or something like that. Lita's father is already over here and her mother is staying over in Japan because that's where she lives. Besides, Lita can help you with the wedding plans."
Anya thought the entire situation over for an entire minute before saying, "Oh all right. I just don't like getting out of bed and going somewhere in the middle of the night when we could be doing…other things." Xander couldn't stop the blush that came to his face as he thought of the…"other things" that Anya was talking about. "Later An, later," Xander promised.
Fifteen minutes later, Xander and Anya were standing side-by-side waiting as the flight from Japan, with a slight layover in Hawaii, disembarked. Slowly the number of passengers, mostly Japanese or English or uptight businessmen so far, began to dwindle and Anya was beginning to become impatient. Again.
"Are you sure this is their flight?" she asked. Xander held up the slip of paper he had taken Lita's message on, and then the faxed receipt of the airline that held the flight information, including the flight number and the arrival time in Sunnydale. Both were accurate. Sighing, Anya stood still for another twenty seconds after another five passengers left the gate. "Well, are you sure you could recognize her, I mean it's been how long since you last saw each other?"
This time Xander sighed as he answered the woman's answer and pulled out his wallet, leafing through the pictures. "True, the last time I saw Lita, Willow and I were in the fourth grade, and that was just before she moved to live with her mom, but I've always gotten letters from her. Here's a picture of her with several of her friends. Two of which I'm told are also with her. This picture is less than three months old Anya, so don't worry about that." Xander answered.
A few more minutes, after which the passengers coming off had dwindled to less than two every minute, even Xander was beginning to get worried. Until three tall, casually dressed teenage young women stepped out with two carry-ons per arm. The first, who also happened to be the tallest, had chestnut brown hair done up in loose ponytail held back by a turquoise hairpiece. If one looked closely enough, or knew to look for them, they could see two bright pink rose earrings that adorned her ears. On her right stood a delicate young woman of obvious Japanese origins with solid oil-slick black hair that fell gracefully all the way down her back. She seemed to favor red as a color as most of her clothing was such.
On the tall girl's left was another beautiful young woman, but her appearance seemed to be mixed between Japanese gracefulness and poise, and the blond hair blue eyes of European decent. Her long yellow-blond hair fell just as far back as the raven-haired girls' did, but she also adorned her hair with a simple red bow that made her simple outfit almost glow.
As soon as Xander saw them, he immediately tensed and grew a very large grin on his face. The three girls themselves were looking around until the tall chestnut hair girl caught Xander's eye. She too seemed to become rapidly excited and dropped all of her bags, much to the annoyance of her companions. Xander started to run forward to greet the woman, shouting, "LITA!!"
When they literally collided into their hug, the brown-haired young woman, apparently Xander's cousin Lita shouted back, "XANDER-SAN!!" They stood there hugging for a minute, until their respective companions came up to the pair and made coughing sounds until they got the hint and separated.
"It's great to see you!" Xander exclaimed as he released his cousin from the death-grip of greeting.
"It's good to see you too Xan!" Lita answered in a slightly accented English.
Rei and Mina, the raven and blond haired girls, stood off to the side watching the cousins' reunion. Mina leaned over and whispered to Rei in Japanese, "It's a good thing Serena isn't here. Goddess, what a hottie!"
"You know it is impolite to speak a foreign tongue right in front of a person that you assume does not understand it. And I will be privileged to inform you that he is my hottie. Who is Serena anyway?" Anya chastised the two in flawless Japanese.
Xander blinked. So did Lita, Rei, and Mina. "An I didn't know you could speak Japanese." Xander stated as way of question. Anya just shrugged and continued in English. "They said you were a hottie and I am feeling over-protective an jealous Xander, as your cousin and her friends are all beautiful young women that you would probably much rather look at than me…"
Xander immediately let go of Lita and went over to his fiancée. "Anya, stop that. First of all, Lita's my cousin. Second of all, both these girls have boyfriends that are probably just as big and protective as I am of you. Third, I happen to know a little Japanese since Lita taught me some while she was learning it here in the States."
"Right, you've got nothing to worry about…An?" Lita asked about the girl's name.
"It's a nickname Lita," Xander explained. "Allow me to introduce my fiancée, Anyanka, Anya for short. Anya, allow my to introduce my cousin, Lita, and her two friends, uh…Rei and Mina? Did I get that right?" Both girls shyly nodded their heads.
Suddenly Lita turned around and snapped something out very quickly in Japanese that Xander couldn't follow. Anya however apparently could as when Lita finished she said, "Thank you Lita," in English, giving the other two girls a hard glare. Rei, the black haired one Xander reminded himself, was turning as red as her outfit and had her head bowed. Mina meanwhile was trying very hard it seemed not to laugh.
"What did you say to them?" Xander asked as he picked up a couple of the girls' carry-ons.
"Just a few choice words of wisdom," Lita answered, picking up her own carry-ons and the ones Xander was unable to get. "By the way, how's Willow? And I can't wait to meet this girl that's been in all of your letters. What was her name again? Becky? Bunny? Buffy?"
Xander couldn't help chuckling as they made their way to the baggage carousel.
"It's Buffy Lita. Buffy Summers. And you will like her. Just don't make any height jokes."